Autumn in the Mountains!

I love the beautiful views we enjoy this time of year. Unfortunately, it won't last long...and we've already had snow in the higher elevations! We try to spend as much time as we can outside now before it gets too cold.

Next week, our student from Japan will be coming to stay. He'll only be here for a week so hopefully we can pack lots of fun in and show him a few of our favorite sights.

Other news: Zach is getting glasses!! He had an eye exam last week and boy has he changed since last year. I about died when the doctor had him try to read some of the letters with his left eye and he couldn't see any of them. Well, he definitely needs glasses now. But as the doctor said, when you have parents who are near sighted and you're a big reader, it's not really a surprise.

Fall Photos...

We decided to spend Sunday afternoon taking some pictures outside.

Kirk took the picture of Eliza in the hammok. It shows off her beautiful little face.

Silly, Sweet Sisters!!

I took these pictures after church one day in our front yard.

Today, I took Eliza for her check-up at Primary Children's Hospital. She had a CT scan and everything looked great. In fact, the neurosurgeon said just to continue going to the pediatrician and as far as he was concerned, he saw no reason for her to have anymore scans or visits with him. Yeah!!

We're Back!!

Kirk, Eliza, Zach and Olivia

Red Butte Gardens, Univ. of Utah

(a week ago, while Grandma Carol was visiting)

OK, so summer was not a great time for me to blog! With all of us at home, swimming lessons (a whole month of them for three kids!), Zach's play at the Scera (The Music Man, more about that later) all of Kirk's scouting activities, and not to mention the huge backyard project we've been working on, I've rarely had a moment to sit down at the computer. Now that life is getting somewhat back to normal, I've decided to try to blog again and improve the site at the same time.

Come by again soon as I try to add more to the site and fill you in on some of our summertime activities!

I'm on my way!

Eliza looks like she's rushing to an emergency with her play pet carrier. Actually she's probably trying to get away with Olivia's puppy before she catches her.

Kirk and Olivia playing the Nintendo DS. (Something I swore I'd never buy but decided to get one for him for Christmas to take with us to China. We knew how bored he would be without enough books to read. )

Memorial Day BBQ

Cousins came over for a BBQ on Monday. Eliza is sitting by one of her favorite cousins, Isaac. The weather turned out beautiful and we had a wonderful day! (Don't look at the weeds...that was the part of the yard I didn't get to yet.)

Eliza's Visit to the Hospital

Eliza just returned home from the hospital last week after a 12 day stay due to a shunt infection. She had a shunt (a small tube which takes care of excess spinal fluid) put in last year in China and we have been taking her to Primary Children's Hospital to have her evaluated. I went with her for a follow-up appt. just to go over her x-rays with the neurosurgeon. While I was there, I asked why she had a problem with the skin healing at the site of her shunt on her head. They immediately had a test run to check for infection and said it would probably be a few days before we had any results. One hour later we were called to bring her back and admit her to the hospital!
The shunt had to be removed so she had surgery the next morning. It went fine but she had to stay in the hospital a minimum of 10 days while she had the antibiotics and was attached to an external shunt since a new one can't be put in until the infection is gone. Since she was so high functioning, the neurosurgeon decided to test whether she even needed the shunt. Amazingly, she didn't have to have the second operation. As the doctor said, " That's the luckiest shunt infection ever." She seems to be problem free and we are so grateful for how everything turned out.
We managed to be there for her waking hours but it wasn't easy! We also were able to come up as a family on weekends and Mondays. Thank goodness for friends and family who helped out during this time.

Spring Vacation!

Tuzigoot , Montezuma's Well, Waputki Natl. Monuments, Grand Canyon and the Deer Farm

I'm trying to catch up on the last month or so but we had such a great time in Arizona, I didn't want to miss putting in some pictures.

Temple Day

March 27th was a very special day for our family! It may have been cold and windy outside but we felt warm and calm inside the temple as we all gathered to have Eliza join our family forever. Eliza and Olivia are wearing dresses I had made from some beautiful Chinese silk we brought back from Beijing. My black silk dress was from Beijing also but I had it made there by a tailor who our guide set up to come and measure me right at our hotel. Definitely clothes for special occasions only! This was really a wonderful day for us and truly made our adoption process complete. We love this amazing little girl and are so happy to be blessed by her coming to our family...forever!

Fun at the Farm!

Zach found his twin! Who needs a haircut more?

Kirk loves to help Eliza.

Olivia dancing and singing as usual!

Grandma Carol visited at Easter. As you can see, we had a bunch of fun at the Thanksgiving Point Animal Farm. Eliza loved feeding the animals and riding the ponies. We all had a good time.

Is it Springtime Yet?

I love to be outside!!!

We've had a few nice days to play outside. Eliza loves riding bikes and we go out with Olivia and the boys quite often. The sand box finally dried out enough to play in and she had a blast! She loved digging with a shovel but didn't want to get sand on her hands.

Zach trying to hold onto to Eliza...not for long!

Eliza and Olivia love their matching dresses!

Here I come mom!

Eliza loves our kitty "Phantom".

Pictures at home...finally!

Homemade pizza with Olivia and the boys! (They're busy eating at the counter.)

I need to download some more recent pictures, but these will do for now. It's been so long since I've added pictures that I almost forgot how!

We've been busy with school and doctor's appointments lately but things are starting to settle down. Eliza just loves her brothers and sister. She stays pretty close to me most days (as in within two feet of my every move!) but she's happy and she always has a nap! She made quite an impression on the parents at Kirk's jr. high last week during parent/teacher/student conferences. People wait outside the rooms in chairs to visit with the teachers and sometimes it takes quite a while. Well, Eliza had on her squeaky shoes and the three of us went down the halls with her shoes drawing parents and kids attention alike. When they looked at her she would wave and say "hi" in her cute little voice with a big grin on her face. She loved it! Fortunately, the visits with the teachers didn't take long and they enjoyed meeting her and finding out that Kirk really did miss all that school for a reason! Kirk continues to dote on Eliza and always says how cute she is, how much he loves her, etc. She has a loyal fan in her "Gur-ga" as she calls him. He's so proud of her. Zach and Olivia fight over who gets to sit by her in the car, as do the kids in Olivia's kindergarten carpool. One day her little friend says "How come Olivia always gets to sit by Eliza? That's not fair!" Another child in Zach's carpool can't stop saying how cute she is and how lucky we are to have her! I never imagined how much all these children would love her without reservation. It's been wonderful to feel so much love and acceptance for this little girl of ours.

Eliza gets excited when Mike comes home and yells "ba-ba"! He takes her to nursery at church and they get to leave early so she can come home for her nap since church is from 11:00-2:00. Mike usually has lunch all prepared for us when the rest of us get home. I will miss it when she stops napping and probably so will somebody else!

I'll try to start updating this more often and add some more pictures when I can. My computer time is usually in small chunks. (I told Mike I need a laptop like his we took to China!)

Stephenie

So good to be home!

What a relief it was to get home after three weeks of traveling! It was quite a trip but I really was anxious to be home and see Zach and Olivia. It was a sweet reunion. We have been home over a week now and this is the first day I've actually checked my e-mail. My focus has been on family and home. We've been to the doctor twice, once for Eliza's checkup and two days later when Kirk had the flu (he had to miss two more days of school,yikes!). Otherwise, things are pretty much back to normal. Eliza is doing fantastic! She acted like she already knew Zach and Olivia. I guess sending the little photo album was a good idea after all. It didn't take long for our children to fall in love with her. Just like we read in the first information we had on Eliza: "You can't help but love her." We weren't sure if she would sleep in a toddler bed, but she's done just fine. At first, she would stay in bed and cry for someone to come get her. Now, she usually follows Olivia out of the bedroom in the morning with a smile on her face. She loves our food, especially fruit and bread and especially anything Mike cooks. Really, she hasn't found much she hasn't liked so far! We are teaching her to say "please" rather than yelling for more of what she wants. One thing she doesn't like is plain milk. I finally gave up and started putting a little chocolate syrup in so she would drink it (this was after days of juice and water and lots of wasted cups of milk-warm, cold or powdered, she hated it). Oh well, at least she'll have the calcium she needs!
The kids love to make Eliza laugh, especially Olivia. What a great big sister she has become! Zach and Kirk are so good to her and are always saying how much they love her and how cute she is. She calls Mike, "Baba" and is always so excited to see him. Although she has some strong-willed toddler moments, I think she is adjusting very well. Hopefully, all will go well when we visit the Children's Hospital on Friday. Her health and abilities are right on for her age, except for speech but that is already improving. We would like to keep it that way.
Thanks to all our friends and family who have been there with us on this journey. I have a feeling this is just the beginning! I will try to post some pictures soon.

The Apallo Bruger Party

The Apollo Burger party , funny name huh. Well when they got back the next day we went to Apollo Burger I got a Jr. burger (dad calls it a baby burger) so did Kirk and Olivia, mom got a hamburger with some goo and gunk (so did dad but he put more gunk and goo) and Eliza got a Jr. burger (Kirk was going to eat one half the big half but he got full). She did NOT like it at all !!! but nothing a good (or should I say bad?) tantrum we were the center of attention for a little while. But then came, ba ba ba ba the FRENCH FRY yuck whats all that red stuff look to mommy, but daddy takes the yellow thing in the red and eats it, I want some. "Ahh" .YUM MORE. I want to dip it. Yay. the end

Home at last

Our flights were great from China to Japan and we were 60 minutes early coming in. Then we flew from Tokyo to Minneapolis. This flight was 30 minutes ahead of schedule. However we had to sit at the gate for awhile because there were two sick people on the flight. The only flight that mattered was the one to Salt Lake. Obviously that was the one that was delayed by over an hour. In all the way through all the cities the people were nice. Except in Salt Lake. When I was trying to get our bags I had the misfortune of having all of our bags being among the first 15 or so to come out from four flights. There was a throng of people waiting and I had to push my way through them to get our bags out. One oaf was on his cell phone and complained loudly how I should say excuse me. Since I had said that and it was pretty obvious that I had three large bags I was pulling through, I thought he was a real jerk. Oh well, it's nice to be home.

BTW, they really do get on the intercom and ask if there are doctors on board. One lady was coughing up blood. The other guy was pooping bloody stools. They were both just a few rows from us. Oh, hurray! They had to bring paramedics on board and Customs to get them off the plane before everyone else. Then people within one row of them had to fill out extra paperwork. We were beyond that, at least.


Security is interesting between the countries. We went through the Chinese security then the airline checked our bags one more time before getting on the plane. Then in Japan we had to go through security again and the airline security again before boarding. In the US, we got off the plane and went to the Immigration line for Homeland Security. As I was getting into line an officious lady asked me, "Sir, are you an immigrant?" Of course I replied that I wasn't, but before I could continue she told me that I was in the wrong line! I then finished my statement that my new daughter was an immigrant and she stalked off. Actually, the rest of the process was very nice and the people were efficient and pleasant. We had to have our bags go through the normal screening again and move our bags across the aisle to the airlines again in case we were selected for inspection. We weren't so it was fast. I think they looked at the four of us and figured we didn't have any contraband or extra stuff.

We got home a little after 9 and unloaded all the stuff we had. Eliza was pretty outgoing after a few minutes with everyone. She was very interested in, and scared of, our cats. She would pat them if we were with her. She was very sad when grandma left. She wanted to go with "Nana". We'd shown her pictures we had of many people and I guess she remembered that grandma. She slept with Olivia in her new room and is still asleep now. It was an exhausting day for all of us. I went to have a bath and then wanted to watch TV for a few minutes. Stephenie said that the TV was off and the remote in my hand when she came to bed. I was very tired.

Oh, this morning I listened to our voicemail messages. It appears that we were supposed to have some kind of pre-trip interview with the social worker. CHI and he called to set it up. The problem was that they called after we left. CHI, at least, should have known when we were leaving. I left a message with the social worker that he could call us now that we were back. I haven't heard from him yet.

Goodbye China

I am getting ready to shutdown my computer because the bellboys are supposed to be here any minute. We have finished packing and we're just waiting for them. We'll leave the hotel in under 30 minutes to come home. It's been a great experience but we're ready to get on the airplane and fly for 18 hours and being in airports for another 6 or 7 hours. See everyone soon.